Glossary
Stockout
Definition
Having nothing available to sell of a SKU that customers are actively trying to buy.
Stockouts cost the immediate sale and something less visible: listing momentum, and a customer who buys from a competitor and often stays there.
They are the mirror image of overselling — the same broken number, erring the other way — which is why over-buffering to avoid oversells simply converts one loss into another.
Related terms
- Reorder pointThe stock level at which you place the next purchase order, calculated as average daily sales multiplied by supplier lead time, plus safety stock.
- OversellingAccepting an order for stock you cannot ship, usually because more than one channel held its own idea of how much was available.
- Dead stockInventory that has not sold for long enough that it is unlikely to sell at full price, tying up cash and storage.